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U.S. Pavilion Sets Records at Global Energy Sector Trade Show

About the Authors: Jennifer Young and Michelle Cook serve at the U.S. Consulate in Calgary, Canada.

American companies flooded into the Calgary Stampede grounds in record numbers this week to promote their goods and services at the Global Petroleum Show. With 65,000 thousand participants, the GPS, as it is commonly known, is now the world's largest energy sector trade event. To support invigorated economic statecraft, staff from the U.S. Consulate Calgary were on hand to support U.S. companies' efforts to increase trade with Canada as well as identify joint venture partners, distributors and investors.

Nearly 300 U.S. companies exhibited at the show, 75 of them part of the official U.S. Pavilion hosted by the U.S. Commercial Service in Calgary. With delegations from Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma, led by Governor of Oklahoma Mary Fallin, it's the largest country pavilion at GPS this year and largest group of American businesses that the FCS has hosted to date in Calgary. Spirits were high as Governor Fallin and Laura Lochman, U.S. Consul General in Calgary, presided over the ribbon cutting ceremony on Tuesday, June 12 to officially open the U.S. Pavilion. Companies participating in this year's show have come from across the United States bringing expertise and technologies ranging from water reclamation to innovative new tools used in the extraction process. Some companies have been participating in GPS for a decade while others are exhibiting for the first time.

The Commercial Service staff from the Calgary Consulate have been on site for the duration of the show helping American companies to connect to Canadian businesses looking for suppliers. Consul General Lochman has also been giving briefings and speeches at trade show events around town on the strengths of U.S.-Canada trade relationship and the economic opportunities that it generates. The work of U.S. Consulate in Calgary and the resulting business deals being done daily at GPS are an excellent example of economic statecraft in action, and it directly supports the President's National Export Initiative (NEI) to double U.S. exports worldwide.

Just one example of the NEI in action is the success of long-time GPS participant, Wyoming Completion Technologies, run by Scott and Janice Hecht. Their company manufactures downhold oil tools including bridge plugs, cement retainers, and composite plugs. In recognition of their exporting success, Consul General Lochman presented them with the U.S. Commercial Services Export Achievement Certificate at a breakfast briefing organized by the Calgary FCS staff.

"It is an honor for me to now recognize what the folks in the Commercial Service would call 'a poster child' in terms of success in exporting," said Lochman as she presented the certificate. According to Mr. Hecht, it is thanks to Wyoming's participation in events such as the annual Calgary oil and gas shows and matchmaking meetings facilitated by the U.S. Commercial Service, that he has been able to establish contact with numerous international firms some of which have resulted in deals for the company.